Chasing the blues away

Sometimes the best way to chase the” so much to do, so little time” frustration away is to just go ahead and create something. To play around with the material without a plan or a goal and almost without thinking. I ended up making a crown from wool, scraps of metal and some buttons. The crown just “happened”.

I decided that the crown will be a gift for someone I admire but haven’t met. It’s for a female journalist in my local newspaper whose pieces about art & craft and design always are a joy to read. I admire the fact that she covers craft and craftsmanship in a daily paper and always in a way so that you understand that she actually made a thorough background search.   

I figured that a newspaper office might need a little embellishment so today I put the crown in a big box with the journalists name on it and handed it in at the reception in the newspaper building. Hopefully they won’t panic, think it’s a bomb, call the bomb squad and have it blown up!

Take care

Jeanette

My leaf and I

Here I am at the exhibition where all the 87 south Swedish leaves were shown. I look happy don’t I? It’s because it is finally finished, ha-ha. It was great fun seeing how all the artist had made different interpretations of the leaves, not a single one looked the same or even similar. I can’t wait to see the rest, all 1913 of them in Stockholm in June. Although there was a lot of fantastic stuff there the most colorful “thing” to be seen was my dear friend Anna with her amazing knitted shawl.

She made it herself of course. Know wonder she is a constant source of inspiration to me!

Jeanette

The Friday Tutorial

Soda can wreath

Swedish tin cans are rather boring. Not like anything you can buy in Asia or America.- color wise I mean. Swedish tin cans have nice paper labels but once the label has come off they all look the same silver metallic. That’s one of the reasons why I like to work with soda cans. They come in all kind of colors and patterns and not only that, they are so soft that you can cut them with a pair of ordinary scissors. Another good thing with soda cans is that you don’t get those awful sharp edges. Working with ordinary tin cans sometimes makes you think you are making Brazilian throwing stars…..

I like flowers and I like soda cans so today I`ll show you how to make a flower wreath out of soda cans.  You will need: soda cans, a pair of scissors, wire, tiny baking tins and pearls.

Fist you make a circular frame for the wreath using wire. Make it the size of your choise.

Then cut up the soda cans in one side with your scissor and then cut the bottom and top off. Now you have a sheet of metal instead of a can. Cut out flowers in diferent sizes and shapes. If you want to you can use a template and trace it to the back of the can before you start cutting.

Then put a small flower on top of a bigger one and continue adding layers of flowers until you are satisfied with the look.

Now you need to secure the layers. Tread a piece of wire through a pearl and twist the wire round the pearl.

Make a tiny hole through all the layers, stick the wire through the hole with the pearl facing the front side and the rest of the wire sticking out from the back.

Secure the flower to the frame using the wire sticking out from the back of the flower. Continue adding flowers to the frame until your wreath is completed. As you can see I used tiny baking tins as well as soda cans.

I promise you this wreath will never wither

Now I leave you for the weekend. Hope you have a creative one!

Jeanette

The Friday Tutorial

Tin can flower pot

I love tin cans as you may know by now! I have a big collection and use them often in my creative work. Today I was dreaming about spring flowers ( it`s snowing outside...) and that gave me a great urge to create a flower pot. From a tin can of course.... Some of my collection....

You need: A tin can (of course), a heavy duty nibbler for dismantling the tin can and a not so heavy duty flush cutter for cutting out the pattern. You also need a sanding paper.

1. Make a template. I made a crown.

2. Trace your template to the tin and cut it out. Use your sanding paper to soften the edges.



3.Paint your tin in any color you like. Depends a bit on the flowers you are going to put in it I guess. If you want to you can paint it on the inside too.



4.Decorate you tin. I used printed photos and decoupage glue. I also glued on some text. If you plan on giving it away you can personalize it to fit the receiver.


Just plant some flowers in it and voila - finished. I plan to put some spring bulbs in mine.

Now I leave you for the weekend. Hope you have a creative one!

Jeanette

The leaf is a FAL

This is my leaf – finished at last. I used all the stuff that I love the most. The inner leaf is made by wire covered with paper mache and then painted white. The birds and the squirrel are made from soda cans and the flowers are made of tea light cups. The heart is hand carved from a birch branch. The text around the leaf is added using decoupage and is a verse from an old Swedish love song. Last but not least I made a tiny embroidery and added to the stem. The whole leaf has sort of a love theme so when I made the embroidery I was thinking about the way lovers carve letters in the bark of a tree. So naturally it had to be J+P - the first letters in me and my husbands names.

Next week I will send the leaf off to the organizers. In March there will be an exhibition of the south Swedish leaves here in Malmö and then the big exhibition is in Stockholm at the beginning of June. Oh I can hardly wait …..It will be so much fun seeing all the other 1999 leaves made. 

Jeanette

The Friday Tutorial

A birthday keepsake from a tin of mackerel

I don’t just collect buttons, yarn, fabric, paper and lace. I collect tin cans too. Today I wanted to make a keepsake for a very special little birthday girl. I went through my collection and found the perfect one – a mackerel tin. Do you want to make one too? Ok here goes.

You need: A mackerel tin or any other tiny tin of your choice. You also need paper in bright colors, a photo, pearls, wire, glue, an awl and a pair of scissors.

Start by making a tiny hole in the top and bottom of the tin using the awl. This is important believe me…I´ve learnt the hard way you see finishing the whole piece just to notice that I forgot to make a hole for the wire hanger.

Cut out a background and a border in paper. Cut out the photo. Glue the background to the tin.

I also drew a pair of butterfly wings and painted them with ink. I added a touch of color to the little girls dress too.

Then I made a little wrapped gift to put in the tin. I used a sugar lump in case she would open it and eat it.

Now tread a piece of wire through the hole on the top, make a loop and secure it with a pearl. Use the hole at the bottom of the tin for hanging a tiny embellishment. I made a string of tiny pearls. It is best to do this before you start adding stuff inside the tin. Otherwise it gets difficult to maneuver. Yep, I learnt that the hard way too….

Finally you glue everything in place. You glue the wings on the back and the photo inside and finish with the border. Then I added the little gift. I never glue the photo directly to the wall, instead I glue the “feet” of the little girl to the bottom of the tin. That creates a sort of 3D effect.

This is another one I made a year ago. Also for a birthday girl! Not from a tin though but you can get a better picture of the 3D effect here.

Now I leave you for the weekend. Hope you have a creative one.

Jeanette

Sneak peak

I am working on my leaf for the exhibition. I go from joy to despair. One minute I am SO content with the result and the next minute I hate it! Recently I learnt that there will be two exhibitions, first one in Malmö showing the leaves from the south Swedish crafters and then a second exhibition in Stockholm (the big one!!) where the 2000 leaves from all over Sweden are shown. Now this doesn’t lower the pressure I am starting to feel one bit! Not many weeks left now before the deadline either.

First I meant to do a wet felted piece. I even started on it…..Then I decided that I wanted a different feel to it all together. My leaf is a combination of metal craft, paper mache, wood carving, decoupage and some embroidery. One can say that it’s a mixture of the things I like to do the most…

Here is a sneak peak…..

Take care

Jeanette

My weekend in pictures

I went to a fab birhday party, held a tiny Christmas market together with my friends, tried to untangle the outdoor Christmas lights with a little help (!) from Tiger the cat, made this years advent candle holder and lighted the first candle.

I hade a great weekend hope you had a good one too!

Take care
Jeanette

The Friday Tutorial

The "Skara stake" - a candle holder

Today the tutorial isn`t by me. Instead I would like to introduce you to a great blog called 365 saker du kan slöjda or 365 things you can craft. They do alot of recycled craft, have fab tutorials and the blog is a constant source of inspiration to me.

Here are the candle holders that I made from following their tutorial. They are made from old cookie tins. As you all know I have alot of those :-)

You find the tutorial here. It`s in swedish but the pictures sort of tells you what you need to know but if you need a translation don`t hesitate to ask me.

This weekend I will light the first advent candle and sell my stuff at a Christmas market. So I leave you for the weekend and hope you all have a creative one!

Jeanette